Cellular-network-assisted wireless local area network channel switch announcement method

Abstract

The present invention discloses a cellular-network-assisted wireless local area network (WLAN) channel switch announcement method, including the following steps: before a wireless network access point (AP) performs channel switching, delivering channel switch announcement signaling to correlated user equipment in a broadcast manner, and sending channel switch announcement request signaling to a cellular network base station that also serves the user equipment; after the cellular network base station receives the channel switch announcement request signaling, sending the channel switch announcement signaling to user equipment in an idle mode by using a cellular link air interface; and performing, by the WLAN AP, channel switching within a predetermined time, and following, by user equipment that directly acquires channel switch information by receiving the channel switch announcement signaling and user equipment that acquires channel switch information by using the cellular network base station, the WLAN AP and performing channel switching.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A cellular-network-assisted wireless local area network (WLAN) channel switch announcement method, comprising the following steps:
 before a wireless network access point (AP) performs channel switching, delivering channel switch announcement signaling to correlated user equipments in a broadcast manner, and sending channel switch announcement request signaling to a cellular network base station that serves the user equipments, the channel switch announcement request signaling comprises: a user equipment ID for the user equipment that cannot receive the channel switch announcement signaling as predicted by the WLAN AP, an ID of the WLAN AP, a channel switch mode of the WLAN AP, a channel before switching, a channel after switching, and a time for channel switching; 
 the cellular network base station, after receiving the channel switch announcement request signaling, sending the channel switch announcement signaling to a user equipment in an idle mode via a cellular link air interface, wherein a cellular link module of the user equipment can receive RRC control signaling from the cellular network when the user equipment is in an idle mode; and 
 the WLAN AP performing channel switching within a predetermined time, the user equipment that directly acquires channel switch information by receiving the channel switch announcement signaling and the user equipment that acquires channel switch information from the cellular network base station, following the WLAN AP and performing channel switching. 
 
     
     
       2. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the WLAN AP sends the channel switch announcement signaling in a periodically broadcast beacon frame. 
 
     
     
       3. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 2 , wherein
 when a correlation is being established between the user equipment and the WLAN AP, the user equipment negotiates on a listen interval, and negotiates with the WLAN AP, before the user equipment enters an idle mode, so that the WLAN AP predicts when the user equipment wakes up to listen to a beacon frame. 
 
     
     
       4. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 according to a state of the correlated user equipments and a time to perform switching, the WLAN AP determines the user equipment that may be unable to receive the channel switch announcement signaling, and according to a pre-negotiated mapping rule for a user equipment ID, maps the user equipment ID for the user equipment that misses the channel switch announcement signaling into an ID type that can be parsed by the cellular network base station. 
 
     
     
       5. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 after the WLAN AP sends the user equipment ID recognizable in a WLAN to the cellular network base station, the cellular network base station searches for a corresponding user equipment ID in a cellular network according to the pre-negotiated mapping rule. 
 
     
     
       6. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 after the cellular network base station receives the channel switch announcement request signaling from the WLAN AP, the cellular network base station sends the channel switch announcement signaling to the user equipment according to a user equipment ID recognizable in the cellular network. 
 
     
     
       7. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 6 , wherein
 the cellular network base station sends the channel switch announcement signaling to the user equipment by using radio resource control (RRC) control signaling. 
 
     
     
       8. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the channel switch announcement signaling comprises: an ID of the WLAN AP, a channel switch mode of the WLAN AP, a channel before switching, a channel after switching, and a time for channel switching. 
 
     
     
       9. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 when a correlation is being established between the user equipment and the WLAN AP, the user equipment negotiates on a listen interval, and negotiates with the WLAN AP, before the user equipment enters an idle mode, so that the WLAN AP predicts when the user equipment wakes up to listen to a beacon frame. 
 
     
     
       10. The WLAN channel switch announcement method according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the cellular network base station sends the channel switch announcement signaling to the user equipment by using radio resource control (RRC) control signaling.